Warm Tahini Kale and Quinoa Bowl + Roasted Chickpeas

During the holidays, I’ll admit, I’m like anyone else when it comes to pigging out. The best part about the holidays is the excuse to eat and drink it up with friends and family, and just spend quality time together. Then there’s the load of chocolate and tasty treats that you give and get as gifts, which makes it tough sometimes to want to eat healthfully. It’s almost as if you have to convince or trick yourself into eating your vegetables.

Here’s where the Tahini Kale and Quinoa Bowl comes in…

I am in looooove with kale. I eat it at least once a day, whether it’s in a kale juice, thrown in with a stir fry, or included in a salad. I’ll take it just about any which way. Even if you’re not a fan of kale, the savory flavours in this quinoa bowl will have you craving it – trust me when I say kale tastes totally different when roasted with some olive oil and salt & pepper in the oven.

Roasted chickpeas are surprisingly so easy to make, and can be made ahead of time if you take 45 minutes on a Sunday to roast them in the oven. I always add a little bit of chili powder and garlic salt for a bit of kick. They make a great snack and a delicious, protein-rich addition to weekday salads. All you need is a can of chickpeas – though you might want to double the portion, they’re pretty addictive!

Kale and quinoa are both superfoods in that they are healthy, clean foods filled with nutrients, especially the kind that help fight off colds in the wintertime. Anytime I feel myself getting sick, I load myself up with greens, berries, fresh herbs and just about any “superfood” I can get my hands on. Needless to say, this warm vegetable bowl is hearty but nutritiously dense at the same time, and is super filling for a quick weekday lunch.

The tahini dressing drizzled overtop of this Kale and Quinoa Bowl is by far one of the tastiest dressings I’ve ever created. I’m actually not a big fan of dressings since I get sick of the same old salad so quickly. However, the roasted vegetables bring this healthy bowl over the top in flavour, and the tahini dressing finishes it off beautifully. It’s as simple as pureeing tahini, water, your favourite herb (I use either parsley or cilantro) and some garlic, salt and pepper!

Since we are heading into winter, I chose seasonal vegetables like butternut squash, rainbow carrots, red pepper, curly kale and red onion for this bowl. The avocado was a bonus 😉 I love this recipe because it’s super flexible and you can change ingredients by the season. In the summer, I will be trying some grilled fennel, zucchini and a variety of colourful peppers!

Will you be trying this Tahini Kale and Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Chickpeas recipe? If you do be sure to tag us on Instagram and Twitter – we’d love to see what you come up with!!

This Kale and Quinoa Bowl has all the fixings, from roasted chickpeas to red pepper, avocado, peas and carrots.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, cooked

Roasted Chickpeas

1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tsp chili powder

½ tsp garlic salt

½ tsp pepper

Squeeze lemon juice (optional)

Veggies

1 cup curly kale

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup butternut squash, cubed (about ½ squash)

½ cup frozen green peas, defrosted

½ red pepper, sliced

½ red onion, sliced

Salt & pepper to taste

1 cup parsley or cilantro, chopped

½ avocado, sliced

Tahini Dressing

¼ cup tahini

⅛ cup water

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ cup chopped cilantro or parsley

1 small clove garlic

¼ to ½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare chickpeas, then cook on parchment-lined baking sheet in oven for about 35-40 min.

Place butternut squash on a separate baking sheet and cook for about 20 min.

Cook quinoa according to package directions (about 10 min).

Wash, chop and dry kale. Slice and prepare other desired veggies, then mix with kale, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet, and cook in the oven until veggies are warmed and roasted, about 7-8 min.

In the meantime, make tahini dressing, and line two shallow pasta bowls with quinoa. Top with butternut squash, and additional tray of mixed veggies. Sprinkle fresh herbs overtop, and sliced avocado.

Take chickpeas out of the oven, and top each bowl with about ½ cup of them. Finish by drizzling tahini dressing overtop of bowls and serve immediately.

3.5.3208

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About Taylor Stinson

I'm a fun-loving, 20-something girl about town living in the heart of the city, planning my life one meal at a time. Case in point: I'm obsessed with coffee, coconut and anything spicy, and consider a weekend well-spent if there's lots of good food and drink to go around. A proud Torontonian at heart, I'm a lover of all things lifestyle, am a University of Toronto graduate, and have a Masters degree in Journalism from Ryerson University. My favourite hobbies include listening to CBC radio, and cooking up a storm in my tiny city kitchen!

Hey Heather – hope it worked out for you! I find tahini is kind of a rich nut butter that has a bit of a salty taste so maybe that combined with the salt can be a bit much! In any case, I adjusted the dressing recipe to read 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of salt so that should help in the future! I hope you liked this bowl, it’s one of my favourites 🙂